Vintage Pedro

What a season’s it has been. Not to long ago we were an elite team in the NL. Not to long ago we were a base hit from the World Serise. We are now 63-81, 20 GB in the NL East and trying to crawl (can’t afford crutches) to the finish.

But there are times that even in this losing season you just can’t even imagine. Yes the Bruntlett triple play hurt, but I think this is much worst. It’s Pedro Martinez shutting us out for 8 innings. It’s Philadelphia saying “Let’s Go Pedro”. It’s Pedro Martinez being 5-0, matching his win total from last year in 13 less starts. And it’s also how we didn’t even give him a look when he was trying to resign with somebody.

Instead we went with Oliver Perez (3-4, 6.82 ERA, 14 Starts, 3 Years 36 Mil) and Tim Redding (2-6, 5.52, spent time in the bullpen). To Redding’s credit he has pitched well recently but there seemed to be no effort when the season mattered.

Who knows if he would have been pitching like this for a who season. Most likely not. Just the fact we didn’t want to look at him because it seemed we thought he was washed up. He took a 1 Million, 1 Year contract to pitch half a season with the Phillies. Money was no problem. But last night, Pedro proved to us that he is not washed up.

I’m happy for Pedro. He gave us all his heart day everyday on the 4 seasons he spent with us. When he was hurt he tried hard to get back into shape to pitch when he could. We gave him the respect he deserved. If this was a pennant raise, I don’t know how much I would have liked last night. But since it wasn’t, last night was like when Pedro pitched at Shea: Magical.